The French Government wants to spy on electronic communications

On 27 May 2009, the law on orientation and programming for the performance
of the domestic security (Loppsi) was presented by Michèle Alliot-Marie to
the French Council of Ministers.

The law will give the French police the possibility to physically or
remotely install spying software to listen to electronic communications and
introduces the Internet filtering by administrative decision.

According to the text, the Criminal Investigation Police will be allowed to
place on a suspect's computer a sort of internal or external USB key which
will send data to the computers of the authorities. The police may also
remotely install Trojans which will give access to all the data in a
computer in real time.

The police will be allowed to make use of these tools only in "the most
severe cases" which however include "support given to the illegal entry and
residence of a foreigner". Under the control of an examining magistrate
(juge d'instruction), the investigating authority will have to justify the
use of the technique by declaring the infringement investigated, the place
where the investigation will take place and its duration. The spyware can be
installed for a four-month period that can be renewed once.

The examining magistrate's control would be a positive thing as the
examining magistrates are independent from the Ministry of Justice and are
free to take decisions, in terms of the gravity of the investigation.
However, if the justice reform project of the French Government comes into
being, the examining magistrates will disappear which means that the
responsibility to authorize spyware will come to the prosecutor of the
Republic.

The law also obliges ISPs to block access, "without delay", to sites
included on a list drafted under the authority of the Ministry of Internal
Affairs. The list will not be made public and therefore it will be
impossible to contest and this will create the risk of abuses.

In order to prevent contestations, for the beginning, the law will target
the paedophilic contents with the declared purpose to "protect the Internet
users from child pornography images". The operators will have to introduce
in their network software that will stop any connection to sites having a
pedophile character that will be listed by the police. The French Government
will always be able to extend the target by a simple decree.

The text also stipulates severe sanctions for the ISPs that do not observe
the law providing a fine up to 75 000 euro and a year of imprisonment.